So, a little thing happened a while back: this little-known company called Disney bought another unknown property called Star Wars. You may have seen it as a child. All joking aside, this deal also dubbed Marvel the new publisher of Star Wars comic books (surprise surprise). Dark Horse’s license officially runs out on the last day of the year, so if you’ve ever wanted to own any of their Star Wars comics digitally, now’s the time to buy them. Everything is 50% off, and you can buy the entirety of the their collection for a flat $300. You’ll be able to read all these comics digitally after the license expires, so no worries there, but this is your last chance to buy them before they’re gone forever! Read more…

Well, I think it was inevitable that Hot Toys would make a Boba Fett figure, but 1/4 scale? Now that’s impressive… Most impressive. He’ll feature tons of accessories (as usual) along with 30 points of articulation, four sets of hands, a cloth cape, two rifles, and an assortment of knives and blades. Plus, as usual with Hot Toys, at 18 inches tall he’ll be incredibly detailed — you can probably tell from the images. He’ll be out late 2015 or early 2016 (figures like this often get delayed). As for cost? Nothing is confirmed yet, but he’ll probably be over $300, so start saving your pennies now. Check out more images below! Read more…

JJ Abrams recently released a video sending his thanks out to all the fans who donated to UNICEF as part of the Force for Change event, which would give fans a chance to be in the movie. The last two videos gave brief looks at alien puppets and the X-wing design in the film, and this time around we’re seeing Chewbacca and R2-D2 show up! As you might expect, R2 looks like R2. Chewie doesn’t have a single grey hair! I know Wookies live a long time, though, so who knows when those start coming in. Make Wookie noises below the jump. Read more…

Chalk this up to more evidence that JJ Abrams is indeed living up to his promise of more practical effects: the rolling ball droid, BB-8, featured briefly in The Force Awakens teaser, isn’t CGI. In a recent interview, Mark Hamill mentioned the droid, saying, “[…] it’s not CGI, that’s a live prop — I was just amazed.” They also let him drive it around: “I was running it all around at the creature shop up in Pinewood. I’m telling you, it’s an absolute delight.” It’s really great to see how excited Hamill is about being part of Star Wars again. “And not having thought that I’d ever go back there, to go back into that world, is just – I get the chills. It’s just so much fun.” How about you: did you think BB-8 was CGI at first? Read more…

If you watched the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer and wanted just a tiny bit more… I have good news for you. JJ Abrams and Disney have given Entertainment Weekly the names of several characters that show up in the teaser trailer — on trading cards! In a cute reference to yesteryear (JJ apologizes: “I’m only sorry we couldn’t give everyone a stick of gum.”), they decided to reveal the names on red and blue card line-ups. Most important, John Boyega’s character is named Finn, Daisy Ridley is named Rey, Oscar Isaac is Poe Dameron, the ball-droid is BB-8, and the shadowy villain is called Kylo Ren. Check out all the cards below! Read more…

Theme parks are big business these days, it appears! A deal has been struck between the BBC and Paramount to create the London Paramount Entertainment Resort. The park will feature attractions based off of BBC properties like Doctor Who and Top Gear, along with Paramount films such as Star Trek and Transformers. This is a pretty impressive collaboration, but don’t start booking your tickets yet: the park isn’t planned to open until 2020. In other theme park news, Disney chief Bob Iger revealed that Disney’s plans for Star Wars attractions will mainly feature rides themed around the new films, but yet didn’t exclude the possibility of rides based around the prequel and original trilogies. Still early for a lot of these plans, but still fairly interesting! Read more…

Yes, the internet works fast. In under 24 hours, YouTube user Snooperking has put together a fun little video re-making the Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser in LEGO form. It’s not as stunning as some of the other LEGO videos out there, but Snooperking gets majors props for creativity and speed. The new lightsaber with a cross guard is in there too, of course, and the villain maybe reveals why he’s finally in the forest waving his sword at nothing… Check out the full video below, and then dig your old LEGOs out of storage and start making your own! Read more…

Here it is, folks: the teaser trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. There’s not much footage there, but what is there looks pretty great. You’ll get some classic trilogy vibes from this, trust me. There’s still plenty of new stuff — it’s not all old references and I’m honestly liking a lot of the elements they’re showing here. Plus, we finally get a good look at our two leads. I won’t spoil anything for you, aside from that yes, it ends with a fade to black and a lightsaber ignition sound, just like we all expected. Now get below the jump and watch it. You know you want to! Read more…

Get ready, Star Wars fans: SlashFilm is reporting that they have heard from very good sources that the first teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakens will debut this week, around Thanksgiving. They’re saying that it will indeed be shown in theaters. Right around the same time, a Reddit post on /r/StarWars claimed the same thing, also stating that it will be in front of “most if not all films in select theaters.” Interesting! John Williams recently recorded a short piece of music, presumed to be the teaser music, and we also heard reports of a 60 to 90 second teaser. Thanksgiving could be extra exciting this year!

We finally have gotten a title for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. So… what’s your opinion? It seems to follow the same rhythm and titling that previous Star Wars films featured, and it’s also the first time the Force is mentioned in a Star Wars film name. I’m going to assume this has to do with the Force slowly coming back into play after the defeat of the Sith in episode VI. A lot of folks also think that the reason we’re hearing the title now is because a teaser trailer will be out before the end of the year. I hope that’s true, even if it’s just a tiny teaser. Come on Disney, show us what you’ve got! Read more…

It appears that aside from a few minor shots in the next few days, Star Wars Episode VII has officially wrapped. J.J. Abrams recently sent out thank-you cards to the cast and crew, thanking them for their hard work on the film. Then, of course, came the wrap party. I’m not interested in antics of who went to the party or who didn’t (it seemed like a packed event, though!), but I will include John Boyega’s delightful Instagram from the party, featuring himself and his cast-mates singing along to Stevie Wonder’s Superstitious. Also, R2-D2 was there. Read more…

There sure are a lot of aliens in Star Wars, all created by a multitude of talented puppeteers, designers, actors, and costume creators. Sometimes it’s a little difficult to keep track of all of them, though, so a certified Star Wars races expert, Neil Cicierega (of Potter Puppet Pals and Brodyquest fame) is here to help you get them all straight in this humorous video that’s the perfect way to start your weekend. See if you can keep a straight face the whole way through! Then, if you’re ready for more, check out his earlier thorough and detailed video about the various races in Star Trek! Read more…

Playing old PC games is much more complicated than old console games. Console games are standardized, so something like Uncharted will play on any PS3, provided you have a PS3. Old PC games, however, require lots of tinkering, often installing fan-created mods to play them on your current system. So it’s great to have a storefront like Good Old Games that sells old games that will work on modern PCs. GOG has just put up Star Wars: X-Wing and Star Wars: TIE Fighter, which haven’t been rereleased in years. Both games are special editions that include slightly better audio and video, as well as their expansions. They’re both available now for only $10 each, so go grab them! Read more…

Maybe you’ve heard of Star Wars Uncut, the 2012 project that split the movie up into 15-second clips, allowed fans to pick a clip to remake however they liked, and then cut it back together into a full-length movie. Disjointed? Yes. Fun? Totally. Well, Star Wars is well and good, but every true fan knows that The Empire Strikes Back is where it’s at. Hence, the team has finally released Empire Uncut, using the same premise as the first movie. 480 fans worked on this two hour movie, which you can watch below. But if you don’t have the time, at least check out the trailer to see what they were going for. Read more…

The new Lucasfilm under Disney has done a lot of work on rebooting the the Expanded Universe and ensuring that all future Star Wars media fits into the canon. The Wall Street Journal recently did a profile of Kiri Hart, the vice president of development, who’s responsible for making sure that everything lines up nicely. There’s an interesting note, though, that SlashFilm points out: all the spinoff films and any spinoff story ideas are formulated inside Lucasfilm, and then they find artists, directors, and writers who they feel fit the concept. The old rumors of Zack Snyder pitching a Seven Samurai-styled Star Wars film weren’t exactly correct. It’s interesting how closely they’re holding their cards. Read more…

Hot Toys continues to knock it out of the park with every figure they make, but this new Chewbacca figure might just take the cake. He has brown fabric hair across his entire body, and it looks just like the real thing. I’m honestly surprised it looks this good, because typically, hair on figures is hard to do right. A whole figure of hair? A nightmare! But somehow they pulled it off, and Chewie looks great standing next to Han. As usual, he comes with a bunch of accessories, such as his bowcaster and bandoleer, as well as a figure stand. Check out some more images below, then see the full gallery here! Read more…

Revoltech, Japanese maker of all things figures, have started a new Star Wars line. At least, I’m pretty sure they are, given that their first figure, Darth Vader, is labeled “#001.” That probably means there’s more to come. Revoltech has done a great job in the past of creating pose-able figures that also look great. Vader, thankfully, is no exception. He’s got lots of great poses, and about the only nitpick I have is the cape: it looks great in the default position, but when bent along the hinges, it creates some gaps. Nothing terrible, but I suppose that’s the price you pay for a cool sculpted cape instead of a cloth one. You can pre-order Vader here — he comes out in December. Read more…

Throw another log onto the “stand-alone Star Wars film” fire: rumors are now circulating about the possibility of an Obi-Wan Kenobi spin-off film. Apparently, this is now under consideration after seeing recent popularity polls put Obi-Wan higher than Disney had anticipated. Combined with the fact that Ewan McGregor loved playing Obi-Wan (he was probably the best actor in the prequel trilogy, with the lines he was given) and wants to play him again, it seems like this film would have a much easier time getting off the ground than a Han Solo or Boba Fett movie. Plus, if we gave McGregor a better script, I think we’d have some pretty good right there. Time will tell. Read more…

Yes, after all these years, Sesame Street is doing a Star Wars parody. Perhaps not the most timely, but maybe with Episode VII on the horizon it actually works out. This parody teaches kids all about self control, but most of the jokes are aimed directly at parents. Yes, Chewbacca is a cookie named Chewy. Obviously! The dessert puns come fast and furious, my favorite being Only One Canoli. Plus, there’s a much happier end for the father-son pair of Vader and Luke, given that this is a slightly more kid-friendly setting. Check out the full video below. Read more…

Here’s a tip for you: movies don’t start out with music in them. Shocking, I know! Auralnauts decided to remove the music from Star Wars’ classic throne room scene, in which Luke, Han, and Chewie receive medals for their bravery… in total silence. It gets a little awkward, to say the least. This was seen via Rian Johnson’s Twitter feed, in which Craig Mazin linked this with the warning: “When those first dailies come in, don’t freak out.” This is of course referencing Johnson’s upcoming stint as director of Episode VIII and the dailies in which directors pour over the initial shots made for the film. They might be a bit like this, embedded below. Read more…

Funny: we don’t even know the name of Daisy Ridley’s character yet, but we’re now seeing some leaks of her costume. Above is a leaker’s sketch of her outfit in Star Wars Episode VII, featuring a flip-down visor, a lightsaber, various tools and gadgets, and a blue scarf. Hmm, blue scarves seem to be all the rage these days, eh? I kind of want one, now. Anyway, it’s hard to gather too much from this rough illustration, but it’s nice to see the grungy look is sticking. In other news, Mark Ruffalo recently sent an email to Episode VIII director Rian Johnson, asking him to let him have a part in the film. Then a series of hilarious tweets occurred, embedded below. Read more…

That is one of the best headlines I’ve ever written. Yes, Miltos Yerolemou, an expert swordsman and the man who played Syrio Forel (Arya’s swordplay mentor) in Game of Thrones, has been cast in Star Wars: Episode VII. It seems he’ll be playing a small part, but you don’t hire an actor who also happens to be a master swordsman, and then not give him a sword (or least least some long, pointy weapon)! We don’t know how recently he was cast, so it’s hard to tell what his (small-ish) part will be, but I’m sure he’ll be great nonetheless. So, is JJ Abrams a bigger fan of Game of Thrones than previously though? Read more…

More Star Wars news for your week! ComicBook is reporting that they’ve heard from several sources that Disney is working hard on re-releasing the original Star Wars trilogy on Blu-ray in their unaltered form. Now, this makes a lot of sense, both because a) it’s free money, and b) it builds goodwill with hardcore Star Wars fans before Episode VII arrives. 20th Century Fox still has distribution rights, though, so a deal would need to occur between them and Disney, but I think that’d be a pretty simple stepping stone at this point. Read more…

JJ Abrams can’t put a cap on everything, and little things about Star Wars: Episode VII are leaking out here and there. The most solid leak recently was concept art, and then a photo, of the new Stormtrooper helmet design. These definitely look a bit more modern, but given that this is set 30 years after the last films, that makes a bit more sense. The other, less verifiable rumor, is about the villains of Episode VII: according to the Latino Review, the Inquisitors are indeed the villains, and have been around for a long time. The biggest spoiler of all I’ll include below the break. Read more…